You’ve probably heard how healthy pomegranates are, loaded with antioxidants and all that. I love this fruit and I’ve even been known to pay a ridiculous sum to specialty stores who sell the seeds (“arils” as they’re properly called) in a container, all ready to throw into salads, pancakes, on cereal, or just to eat as is.
For years I never bought the whole fruit because I remembered what a hassle it was to get the arils out of the rind, until this fall.
The people from POM Wonderful had a terrific brochure on display next to the fruit that explained how to open and use a pomegranate. They explained it simply and with easy-to-follow diagrams.
Ever since I saw the brochure, I’ve stocked up on pomegranates with every store visit and become quite the pro at scooping out all the arils. By the way they are awesome with a handful of almonds and a great snack while you’re on the road driving to various home staging consultations.
What turned me into a buyer of pomegranates? Information that was easy to understand and access!
The marketing team at POM Wonderful realized that a big barrier to people buying their product was a lack of understanding about how to use it. They knew they had to educate their audience to build demand for their product. As long as a pomegranate remained a mystery— or a perceived difficulty to use— they could never realize their full sales potential.
Home stagers, you have the same problem!
Most of you live and work in real estate markets where people either have never heard of what you do, or if they have, there is very little understanding of how and why home staging works. This applies not only to home sellers but unfortunately also to Realtors. There are many preconceived ideas and myths about what a home stager does. You have to dispel these so people realize the value of hiring you and feel motivated to take action.
The beauty of this is that once you are the one educating them, you are at the same time positioning yourself as the home staging expert in their eyes. So once they’re ready to hire a professional home stager, you’ll be the one they turn to for help decorating a home to sell on the real estate market.
I discuss the various ways you can deal with this issue in lesson 4 of my home staging courses, called Staging Diva Sales & Marketing Secrets to Boost your Home Staging Business. Depending on whether you’re talking to a home seller or a real estate agent, you’ll want to explain your services in different ways, because both groups have different concerns and different information needs.
Next time you think that educating your potential market isn’t important, think about pomegranates and how a simple fruit (that offers outstanding nutrition, low calories and great taste in a low-cost “package”) was such a tough sell, simply because people didn’t understand how to use it and were therefore afraid to buy.
Home stagers, have you found a great need to educate your local market? Do you embrace that challenge or wish you could just get on with things?
Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®
President, Six Elements Inc. Home Staging
Through the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program, Debra Gould has taught more than 4000 people around the world how to make money as home stagers.
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That’s a great approach! I will use the “educational” approach at my next realtor’s networking meeting. There truly is a lot of confusion about just what we do and how it will benefit the home seller or the realtor!
I totally agree with you and your approach. My best staging projects has been when, my clients understood how staging works, valued my work, and trusted me. Sometimes, I hear complaints about the staging costs, due to their lack of understanding the value of staging; therefore, it is hard for them to understand that this fee is an investment and not an expense. However, I’ve to admit, that people are coming around bit by bit and they’re learning and valuing our work. At least, this is true in Seattle, most people want their home staged. I believe that creative stagers can work with any budget to make the necessary impact. Knowledge is gold and all of us need to help each other and keep educating our clients.
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